Media Lens
Excellent UK-based media analysis
-
Media Lens: The Fictitious Firewall – The Mythical Divide Between Journalism And Advertising
10 October 2006 — Media Lens In its latest annual report on media performance, US-based watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted that: “Most people are aware that news media rely on corporate advertising dollars – though the fact is rarely discussed, and when it is, editors and producers will generally insist that there’s Continue reading
-
Media Lens: The Invisible Corporate Shadow
14 September 2006 — Media Lens The Australian social scientist Alex Carey summed up the evolution of political power in the last century as follows: “The twentieth century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Haiti – The Traditional Predators
11 September 2006 — Media Lens Human Rights, Media Silence And The Lancet Kidnapping Aristide In a series of alerts in 2004 we examined media coverage of events surrounding the military coup that forced Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile on February 29, 2004. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Beyond Propaganda – Climate Change, BP Greenwash and the Press
On May 25, one of us spent several minutes laughing on the phone with a friend of ours, an environmental journalist. We were looking at the homepage of the Independent website – a newspaper that has made huge efforts to present itself as a radical campaigning force for action on climate change. A February 17… Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Burying the Insurgency in Iraq
Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the BBC, like the media more generally, has consistently attempted to delegitimise armed opposition to Britain and America’s illegal occupation of Iraq. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: The Value of Blood – Sovereignty Shattered By Brute Force
It is astonishing to reflect, for example, that our mass media system is not in fact state-controlled. Who could guess from the unvarying support of our media corporations for mass violence committed by our government and its allies? From their eager demonisation of leaders and countries labelled ‘enemies’ of the state? From their consistent indifference… Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Demolishing Lebanon – Part 1
The rules are clear but never discussed – corporate reporters are free and happy to declare their personal views insofar as they accord with state interests, but not when they conflict. To criticise the powerful is to be ‘biased’ and ‘crusading’. To support the case made by power is to be ‘measured‘, ‘objective’ and ‘balanced’.… Continue reading
-
Media Lens Guest: Kidnapped by Israel – The British Media and the Invasion of Gaza By Jonathan Cook
Few readers of a British newspaper would have noticed the story. In the Observer of 25 June, it merited a mere paragraph hidden in the “World in brief” section, revealing that the previous day a team of Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip to “detain” two Palestinians Israel claims are members of Hamas. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: A Superb Demolition – Part 3 – Squeaky Spleen – Beaumont Strikes Back
Media Lens, it seems, produces “nasty emails”, is “run by a couple of acolytes of Noam Chomsky, and serviced by a couple of dozen die-hard supporters”. We are an “irritating site” given to “hyper-ventilating” about this and that, targeting journalists and “anyone else who needs an email kicking”. In short, we are e-hooligans stalking the… Continue reading
-
Media Lens: A Superb Demolition – Part 2
23 June 2006 — Media Lens The Observer’s Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Beaumont Reviews Noam Chomsky’s Failed States Beaumont continues of Chomsky: “In attempting to create a consistent argument for America as murderous bully, going back to the Seminole Wars, he edits out anything that could be put on the other side of the balance Continue reading
-
Media Lens: A Superb Demolition – Part 1
22 June 2006 — Media Lens The Observer’s Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Beaumont Reviews Noam Chomsky’s Failed States A Gauntlet Is Thrown On June 16, the Observer’s editor Roger Alton made a bold announcement on his newspaper‘s website: “And to all my many enemies on the Left, and in various organisations like the pernicious MediaLens, Continue reading
-
Media Lens: The BBC’s John Simpson Responds – Again
14 June 2006 — Media Lens On June 9, we published a Media Alert: ‘An Exchange With BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson.’ (www.medialens.org/alerts/06/060609_an_exchange_with.php) This alert generated some of the most interesting and insightful letters we’ve ever received from readers. On June 13, we received the following response from John Simpson: Continue reading
-
Media Lens: An Exchange With BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson
9 June 2006 — Media Lens On June 6, we sent the following email to the BBC’s Baghdad Correspondent Andrew North, World Affairs Editor John Simpson and Director of News Helen Boaden: Who would guess from your reports and commentary tonight (BBC1, Ten O’Clock News) that the US-UK ‘coalition’ had anything to do with the Continue reading
-
Media Lens Guest: Freedom Next Time – An Extract from John Pilger’s New Book
John Pilger’s new book, Freedom Next Time (Bantam Press, 2006; www.johnpilger.com/) has just been published. Containing chapters on Diego Garcia, Palestine, India, South Africa and Afghanistan, it is a devastating indictment of brutal state-corporate power, and a heartening account of how people around the world are challenging that power. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Silence in the Service of Power
In November last year, as many as 24 Iraqi civilians – among them 11 women and children – were killed by US marines in Haditha, western Iraq. The New York Times has described the atrocity as possibly “the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq”. Initial US army reports had suggested the… Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Ridiculing Chavez – The Media Hit Their Stride – Part 2
In Part 1 of this alert we showed how the mainstream media have been united in depicting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as an extreme, absurd and threatening figure. In essence, the public has been urged to consider Chavez beyond the pale of respectable politics. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Ridiculing Chavez – The Media Hit Their Stride – Part 1
16 May 2006 — Media Lens Controlling what we think is not solely about controlling what we know – it is also about controlling who we respect and who we find ridiculous. Thus we find that Western leaders are typically reported without adjectives preceding their names. George Bush is simply “US president George Bush”. Condoleeza Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Notes from a Dying Planet – The Media’s Aversion To Addressing The Juggernaut of Economic ‘Growth’
Last year we reported that Michael McCarthy, environment editor of the Independent, was “taken aback” at dramatic scientific warnings of “major new threats” in the Earth’s climate system. For instance, the West Antarctic ice sheet, previously considered stable, could collapse leading to a 5-metre rise in global sea level. Continue reading
-
Media Lens: Lining Up the Next Victims
The British media is moving up a gear in support of Washington and London’s agenda of demonising the next potential victims of western power, whether in Iran or Latin America. Consider ‘The Big Question’ posed last Thursday by the avowedly critical ‘Independent’ newspaper in London: Continue reading
The New Dark Age 